This Article: (6 Pages)
- 1. Holocaust and History
- 2. Holocaust is a sacrifice
- 3. Revival of the word Holocaust
- 4. A Difference between Sacrifice and... Offering
- 5. What about the Suffering of the... Holocaust?
- 6. The utimate Holocaust
4) A Difference between Sacrifice and Offering
There is more. The Greek word 'holocaust' literally means something wholly consumed and burnt. The English translators consistently use the expression 'burnt offering', where the Septuagint translators have used 'holocaust'. It is most likely the Septuagint translation influenced their thinking, however, the emphasis of the English translation shifts to something given to be burnt. But neither convey the meaning of the single Hebrew word used.
The Hebrew word for 'a burnt offering' or 'sacrifice' adds to the meaning. In the Hebrew text the word translated 'sacrifice' in the English version is most commonly 'zebach' meaning 'slaughter', or 'olah' meaning 'going up' or less commonly 'qûrbân' better translated 'brought near' or a 'present'. These all convey very different pictures. Something for slaughter focusses the death, whereas a present focusses on the role of the giver. However, in all instances where the Septuagint version translates the word as 'holocaust' the word in the Hebrew is עלה or 'olah' and it means an 'ascent', a going up, or 'to go up to' or stairs. The word refers to the smoke of the burning ascending.
We have examined the use of the Greek word, a Gentile word, with a meaning that is accessible to the Gentile world and the English translation. Neither wholly burnt or something given to be burnt is the meaning of the single word used in the Hebrew for a 'burnt offering' sacrifice. In Hebrew the emphasis is not on the destruction, but rather on the smoke ascending, or 'going up'. Now, Moses at the bush saw the bush burning but the bush was not consumed. Those who do not know the Hebrew hope see the sacrifice of the Holocaust as one of a complete burning, whereas, those who know the hope of Israel know that the sacrifice of those lives was the means of “going up”. It is no accident that the return to Israel is called “The Aliyah” or the “going up”.
The following is from the Department for Jewish Zionist Education. (www.jafi.org.il) Note the word in bold underlined. That word is the plural for 'olah'.
Introduction - "Aliyah" - the word and its meaning
Aliyah, (pl. aliyot) "ascension" or "going up" is the arrival of Jews as individuals or groups, from exile or Diaspora to live in Eretz Yisrael - the Land of Israel. Those who "go up" for this purpose are known as olim - a term used in the Bible when the Children of Israel went up from Egypt (Gen. 50:14 and Num. 32:11) and - at a later period - for the exiles who returned from captivity in Babylon (Ezra 2:1,59 and Neh. 5-6). The call of Cyrus, King of Persia, in 538 B.C.E., - "Whosoever there is among you of all His people, his God be with him, - let him go up." (Ezra 1:3, II Chron. 36:23) - has been used as a watchword for aliyah.
The contributors to Wilkipedia have added: "A Jew who makes aliyah is called an oleh (m. singular) or olah (f. singular), the plural is olim. Many Jews espouse aliyah as a return to the Promised land, and regard it as the fulfilment of God's biblical promise to the descendants of the Hebrew patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Those who go up are known by the same word as that word translated as 'burnt offering' in the English translations. And they 'go up' to receive their promised inheritance. This event has shown to all the world a great principle that has been seen from the very beginning. It was shown when the lamb was slain to provide a covering for Adam and Eve and when the lamb and the first-born were slain in Egypt. The principle is that deliverance to receive the promises is not without the shedding of blood.
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